‘Dialogic scaffolding’: Enhancing learning and understanding in collaborative contexts

In this paper we present a system of analysis for characterizing ‘dialogic scaffolding’, i.e., the way scaffolding processes are enacted through the dialogic interactions among teachers and learners. The system employs tools from Socio-cultural Discourse Analysis (Mercer, 2010) and the Ethnography of Communication (Saville-Troike, 2003). We also illustrate the application of the system with selected data from a study on the role of teacher–student dialogic interactions in enhancing understanding in collaborative contexts. Following a socio-cultural perspective for understanding learning and developmental processes, the system seeks to create bridges between conceptualizations of ‘scaffolding’ and ‘dialogic approaches’ to studying these processes in classroom settings. Results show the system's potential for providing fine-grained accounts of how adult–children dialogic interactions serve as scaffolds to enhance the latter's understanding and learning. We discuss the theoretical and practical contributions of this work for comprehending and promoting teaching and learning in school contexts.